Chris,
That article was very interesting due to the fact that it had to do with the tax being imposed on the little guys. This tax was started 25 May 2004 and since that time CONACADO has paid $9.86 million in "solidarity" taxes according to the article. The article goes on to state, “In their fight to repeal the tax, CONACADO has pointed out that the National Cocoa Commission does not have the authority to impose taxes, let alone to do so in an arbitrary manner that benefits one sector of the cocoa industry at the expense of another. Further, the tax was not created by a law, as required by the Dominican constitution.”
My question is why have they been paying this tax if it is illegal? Wait, that was a stupid question! Why have they waited 2 years to complain about this to the president? I just seems to me that as a law must go through the houses then the president or be formulated through a decree to become official how is it that this tax got on the books? It has been either legal for 2 years or illegal and if it has been illegal for all this time then why wasn’t the judicial branch involved? The article further states, “Since 2004, CONACADO and other producers' organizations have pursued other avenues to repeal the tax”, but fails to state what those avenues were.
It is underreporting like this or the failure of CONACADO to report their prior actions that cause readers like me to throw up our arms and say WTF.
Rick
|